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“The best way out is always through.”


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Fantasy Tracks: Fun with the Channel Mixer

I created this image the other day while just doodling in Photoshop. Basically all that I did was to perform my normal corrections in the RAW converter (white balance, exposure, saturation, sharpness, etc.) and then I messed around with the blue channel in the Channel Mixer. In this case I just slid the blue slider all the way to the right and it left most of the colors fairly close to normal but turned the green grass a soft pretty blue. The photo has the look of a color Infrared slide (for those old enough to remember false-color Infrared slide film); a look that I have always liked. Very simple do, try it if you have a Channel Mixer in your editing software. I'm not sure if Photoshop Elements has one or not, but it probably does.

By the way, you can create a somewhat similar effect by misusing the Curves control. I use it to turn sunsets into moonlit scenes. I don't always get the look I want, but it's worth experimenting with sometime.

Photo notes: The photo was shot in Shelton, Connecticut using a Nikon D90 and an 18-70mm Nikkor zoom lens. It was shot on a Manfrotto tripod, in RAW, and the exposure was 1/2 second at f/20. The image was converted using the Adobe DNG converter and worked in Photoshop CS3. This is posting #490.


2 comments:

Adrianne Molin said...

Incredible adjustments in PS, the image looks natural.


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Jeff Wignall said...

Thanks Adrianne. It was very simple to do. I wish it looked like that in reality. But I guess in my imagination, it does!